Volume 27, No. 1

As the saying goes: those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. In business, most players are concerned with making history, not learning from it. While each year that passes is usually scorned by the press as the worst one ever, jibes about the severity of the year just ended aren’t always refreshing. (One exception: humorist Dave Barry’s annual review, reachable here.)

Most reviews of the year gone by contain a political slant - and maybe this year, that slant became more pronounced. Chalk it up to cause and effect: it’s been a political year like no other in this country. What’s presented here is more objective: we’ve simply collected business headlines throughout 2017 from the main news sources and strung them together to see if there’s a rhyme or reason to the assemblage of events. Spoiler alert: no. Randomness ruled in 2017, just as in most other years. Read the following and see if you don’t agree: while 2017 had its share of business miscreants and record-setting activities, it sure felt like a lot of other years in commerce.